Publications

A recently constructed, five-story, asymmetrical steel building on the campus of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks was equipped with a strong-motion array that recorded the M7.1 Anchorage earthquake of November 30, 2018 at an epicentral distance of 408 km. The largest recorded peak accelerations at the basement and top of the building are 0.021g and 0.071g, respectively. The steel building is de

In response to the dramatic increase in earthquake rates in the central United States, the U.S Geological Survey began releasing 1 yr earthquake hazard models for induced earthquakes in 2016. Although these models have been shown to accurately forecast earthquake hazard, they rely purely on earthquake statistics because there was no precedent for forecasting induced earthquakes based upon wastewat

The Fairweather fault (southeastern Alaska, USA) is Earth’s fastest-slipping intracontinental strike-slip fault, but its long-term role in localizing Yakutat–(Pacific–)North America plate motion is poorly constrained. This plate boundary fault transitions northward from pure strike slip to transpression where it comes onshore and undergoes a <25°, 30-km-long restraining double bend. To the east, a

If you’ve ever seen tall antennas rising from everyday residences in your community and wondered what they are for, it could be that those homes belong to ham radio enthusiasts who enjoy communicating with each other over the airwaves. In addition to having fun with their radios and finding camaraderie, many ham radio operators are also prepared to help neighbors and authorities communicate during

A 51-story building in downtown Los Angeles that is equipped with a seismic monitoring accelerometric array recorded the Mw7.1 Ridgecrest, California earthquake of July 5, 2019. The building is a dual-core reinforced-concrete shear-wall and perimeter-column structure with ~ 80% of floors constructed as post-tensioned flat slabs, which makes it a trending design. Using system identification methods

Geothermal systems rely on the presence of long-lived and high-volume, permeable fracture systems. The creation, reactivation, and sustainability of these systems depend on complex coupling among thermal, hydraulic, mechanical, and chemical (THMC) processes occurring in geothermal reservoirs. In part due to a paucity of experimental data, the evolution of fractures at geothermal conditions in resp

An increase in injection activity associated with energy production in southern Kansas starting in 2013 has been linked to the occurrence of more than 130,000 earthquakes (M −1.5 to 4.9) between 2014 and 2017. Studies suggest that the dramatic increase in seismicity rate is related to wastewater injection into the highly permeable Arbuckle formation. Most of the seismicity is located in the underl

Changes in fault roughness with scale, “scaling,” is the topic of this report; changes are considered using a general power law relation between some measure of surface height, H, and another of length, L, H=kLn, where k is a constant and n is an exponent that characterizes the scaling. Extensive profile measurements of natural fault surfaces show that the ratio of average surface height to profil

The 2018 US Geological Survey National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM) incorporates new data and updated science to improve the underlying earthquake and ground motion forecasts for the conterminous United States. The NSHM considers many new data and component input models: (1) new earthquakes between 2013 and 2017 and updated earthquake magnitudes for some earlier earthquakes; (2) two updated smoothe

The M 6.5 Monte Cristo Range earthquake that occurred in the central Walker Lane on 15 May 2020 was the largest earthquake in Nevada in 66 yr and resulted in a multidisciplinary scientific field response. The earthquake was the result of left‐lateral slip along largely unmapped parts of the Candelaria fault, one of a series of east–northeast‐striking faults that comprise the Mina deflection, a maj

The largest slip in great megathrust earthquakes often occurs in the 10–30 km depth range, yet seismic imaging of the material properties in this region has proven difficult. We utilize a dense onshore-offshore passive seismic dataset from the southernmost Cascadia subduction zone where seismicity in the mantle of the subducted Gorda Plate produces S-to-P and P-to-S conversions generated within a

Hazards from induced earthquakes are a growing concern with a need for effective management. One aspect of that concern is the “nuisance” from unexpected ground motions, which have the potential to cause public alarm and discontent. In this article, we borrow earthquake engineering concepts to quantify the chance of building damage states and adapt them to quantify felt thresholds for induced eart